The transport company Sagalés celebrates 385 years of history. At the event, the president of the Parliament recalled the unpaid debts of the Generalitat in 2016, and Pujol highlighted the family's tenacity.
The transport company Sagalés celebrated its 385th anniversary on Friday at an event in the Llotja de Mar in Barcelona, which brought together political authorities, workers, and executives from the sector. The company, based in Mollet del Vallès, is the oldest in Catalonia, generating 164 million euros in annual revenue, employing 1,800 people, and accounting for millions of trips each year.
During the event, as reported by Crónica Global, the president of the Parliament, Josep Rull, recalled that the company continued to operate in 2016 despite severe delays in payments from the Department of Territory to contracting companies, which threatened to "minimise" the intercity bus network. Rull described the War of Succession as the "collapse of Catalan freedoms."
The history of Sagalés spans 13 generations of the same family, 14 if counting the grandchildren. The company has survived the Civil War, the coronavirus pandemic, and has recently begun its inorganic expansion into Andalusia. The current CEO, Ramon Sagalés, explained that after the civil conflict, their buses ended up in France, and they had to go retrieve them.
"We protected drivers with plastic screens and managed to reduce infections to just one in the entire company: an administrative worker"
This was recounted by Francesc Sagalés, president of the company, during his speech. The executive reviewed the beginnings of his tenure at the helm of the firm, highlighting the role of the women in the family and the female drivers, and recalled episodes such as the post-war period when the shortage of gasoline forced them to use gas generators and to cannibalise parts from retired vehicles.
The former president of the Generalitat Jordi Pujol intervened via video from his home to congratulate the entrepreneurial family. Pujol emphasised the "tenacity" of the Sagalés and stated that "Catalonia needs more lineages" like that of this family business.
The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, opened the day by highlighting the company's "resilience" and reminisced about his collaboration with the company when he was mayor of La Roca del Vallès. Illa noted that, alongside Francesc Sagalés, they were able to "revolutionise regional mobility."
The celebration took place on the eve of the Pilar bridge and was attended by Pere Macías, responsible for the Integral Transfer of Rodalies, and Manel Villalante, a mobility consultant. The company, founded in 1641 as a wool transporter in the Osona region, maintains its headquarters in Mollet del Vallès and continues its expansion with its recent entry into Andalusia.
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